Mailing-box



(No Model.)

G. JOHNSTON.

i MAILING BOX. No. 256,899.

Patented Apr. 25, 1882. f

fag. 2

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE JOHNSTON, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

MAILING-BOX.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 256,899, dated April 25, 1882.

Application tiled January 1l, 1882.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it knownthat I, GEORGE JOHNSTON, of Detroit, in the county of Wayne and State of Michigan, have invented new and useful Improvements in Mailing Boxes or Cases; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specication.

The nature of this invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in the construction of small and light packing cases or boxes, such as are adapted to be sent through the mails from the merchant or manufacturer,and adapted by their peculiar construction to be sent to and frot'rom seller to customer and customer to seller, backward and forward, as may be required, without change in construction or address.

Figure 1 is a perspective of my improved mailbox, showing the address of the purchaser on the cover. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the reverse ot' the cover. Fig. 3 is a crossseetion.

In the accompanying drawings, Arepresen ts a small box suitable for packing spectacles or other small articles, such as are adapted to transit through the mails, such box being of the ordinary construction.

B is the cover, both sides thereof being rabbeted along the edges and ends, so that whichever side of this cover is placed upon the box a portion thereof will project into the box to hold the cover against slipping out of place. Upon one side of this cover is placed, in any convenient manner, by printing, writing, or otherwise, the address of the purchaser, while upon the reverse ot' this cover, as shown in Fig. 2, is in like manner placed the address of the seller or sender. To the bottom of this box are secured one or more flexible bands, G, which, when the cover is in place, hold it securely.

(No model.)

In practice this mailing-box will be found very valuable to all classes of dealers in small wares, the more especially to those who manufacture or deal in wares that may be required to go to and fro through the mails several times before the buyer is suited, as in the case of the spectacle-manufacturer, who will send in one of these mailing-boxes a pair of spectacles to his customer in the country. llhe customer, on trying the glasses, finds them not suited to his eyes, and replaces them in the box, reversing the cover and remailing the same to the manufacturer, who, on receiving them, and having been by mail notified of the unsuitableness of the spectacles sent, incloses another pair in the same box, reversing the cover, and returns them to the buyer again.

I am aware that ieversible covers in boxes for other purposes are not new with me, and that reversible boxes have been before used,

and such features are not sought to be covered broadly in this application.

I am aware of the patent grfned to D. A. Gilbert, No. 77,030, April 21, 1805, for a buttertub, which fails to show the reverse addresses or any adaptation wherefor; and also of the patent ofH. O. Underwood, No. 218,090, of July 29, 1879, which fails to show a reversible cover.

What I claim as my invention is- As an improved article of manufacture, the return mailing-case herein described, consisting of the box-body A, having the elastic securing-band C permanently attached thereto, and of a reversible cover provided around the periphery of each side with a rabbet, the vertical wall of each rabbet, when underneath, being seated withinthe box, Iand thehorizontal wall seated on the box, as herein shown and described.

GEO. JOHNSTON. Witnesses:

H. S. SPRAGUE, E. SOULLY. 

